Online access to legislation in the EU

30 October 2008 (rev.)

Albrecht Berger

Publications Office of the EC 1

Online access to legislation in the

EU - from fee-based to free information -

Conference "Law via the Internet"Florence

30-31 October 2008

Institute of Legal Information Theory and Techniques

CNR

A.Berger, 30 October 2008 (rev.)

2

Contents

I. Legislation online: 3 milestones in Europe

II. How access to EU legislation became free:a case study

III. State of play + trends in EU Member States


3I. Legislation online: 3 milestones in Europe

(1) Laws stored in databasesSince the 1970sSubscription-based (paying) services

(2) Legislation on the InternetSince 1995: copies of legal gazettes are put on the Web

• in addition to the traditional (fee-based) legal databases

Since 1997/98: the traditional legal databases get a Web interface

Since 2001: many databases and websites are merged into new free-of-charge services

(3) Official publishing of legislation on the Internetsince 2001parallel to, or instead of, the paper gazetteseparate websites for the authentic versions


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II. How online access to EU legislation became free of charge: a case study

Celex, the law database run by the Institutions of the EUEU legislation - case law of the Court of Justice – EU law preparatory actstoday’s name: EUR-Lex

Twofold distribution of Celex/EUR-Lex:the EU as a retailer: direct access for end-users

the EU as a wholesaler: distribution to national hosts and other re-distributors

Setting-up of a “Celex-light” service, free-of-chargeEUR-Lex

Chronology of a change of heart: within 7 years, end-user access to Celex became completely free of charge


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Digression: Overview European Union (1)

- 6 Member States in 1952 (4 official languages), - 15 since 1995 (11 official languages)

- 25 since 2004 (20 official languages)

- 27 since 2007 (23 official languages)

‘European Communities’/’Community’ - ‘European Union’1952 (‘Paris’) European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) [-> 2002]

1958 (‘Rome’) European Economic Community (EEC, since 1993: EC) + European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM)

1993 (‘Maastricht’) European Union (EU)

___________________________________________________________

N.B.: 4 EFTA Countries (Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, Liechtenstein)


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Digression: Overview European Union (2)

The 3 “pillars of competence” of the European Union (EU)

(1) European Communities (EC, Euratom, [ECSC])

- Customs union - Single market (4 basic freedoms, competition rules)

- Agricultural policy - Structural policy

- Trade policy - Economic & monetary affairs

- EURO - (many other policy areas)

legislation drawn up by the Community institutions; directly applicable in the Member States; precedence over national law

________

(2) Common foreign and security policy

(3) Justice and home affairs


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End-user access: chronology (1)

since July 1981: Celex open to the public (fee-based access = subscription)

June 1997: decision to grant free access to:the current Official Journal (OJ) limited to the first 20 days (= new service)EU legislation in force preparatory acts; EU case law (“during the period granted by the Court”: then 1 year)

(N.B.: In June 1997, similar decisions were taken, although with different backgrounds, in France and Denmark)

1998: the new free website is opened under the name of EUR-Lex (Celex, the comprehensive database intended for professional users, remains a fee-based service.)

1999: EUR-Lex gets a common search interface (with no time limitation for free access to case law): the free-of-charge “Celex-light” system is completed.


8Annex 1.a

Online access to national legislation (May 1997)

Free of charge:entirely free

restrictions in usage

free during a limited

period

Paying access:

OJ of the EC


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Online access to national legislation (May 1999)

Free of charge:entirely free

restrictions on usage

free during a limited

period

Paying access:

OJ of the EC


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End-user access: chronology (2)

2000: free access to the Official Journal in EUR-Lex is extended to 45 days

2002: unlimited free access to the OJ, + free access to all formats of legislative texts in force

Dec.2002: the European Parliament adopts a resolution requiring free access to Celex (Resolution A5-0440/2002)

July 2004: Celex becomes free of charge

Nov.2004: Celex + EUR-Lex are merged to a new (free-of-charge) service: EUR-Lex


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End-user access: principles + issues (1)

The basic “Information market” principle:“All information and services having a market price should not be provided free of charge. Value-added information providedby public authorities have a marked price.”

Principle applied to all EU databases (half of which were free of charge)

In the case of Celex: retailing the database free of charge would havebeen unfair competition with the (more than 20) re-distributors.

Issues:

Consolidated texts: Although being “added value”, consolidated acts could be accessed free of chargein EUR-Lex (principles of transparency and of “e-Government”)

Metadata: EUR-Lex offered a sufficient set of metadata (no doctrine of limitation to “essential data”)


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End-user access: principles + issues (2)

The decision on complete free-of-charge access to Celex, taken further to the European Parliament Resolution of December 2002,was based on the political axiom that online access to all official legal information had to be free of charge,

although Celex was a service intended for professional users,

although a comprehensive layman-oriented “light version”, EUR-Lex, was operated in parallel.

(N.B.: A thorough discussion on the technical details and the principles at stakedid not take place.)


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Access by re-distributors

The principles of the Directive on Public Sector Information(Directive 2003/98EC of 17 Nov. 2003 – OJ L 345, p.90-96) have been applied, even “avant la lettre”, to the wholesaling of Celex.

Today,

the texts of EU legislation can be re-used for commercial purposes free of charge;

the licence for the database (texts + metadata) has remained fee-based.

The contents of Celex/EUR-Lex are re-distributed free of charge

by some hosts and as a fee-based service by others.

Re-distributors are not critical about the added value with whichthe reference database is retailed (free of charge) by the EU.


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Digression: Free access to case law?

The situation concerning case law databases is more complex.

Many courts publish their decisions (free of charge) on the Internet.

In most countries, databases containing a comprehensive collection of the decisions of courts and tribunals are run by private companies and are, therefore, subscription-based.(There are still countries with public sector databases that are not free of charge.)

Case law of the Court of Justice, during the “transition” period:

Since 1997, the Court of Justice provided its current decisions free of charge on the Curia website, were they were supposed to be taken off after 1 year.

Already from 1999, EUR-Lex provided free unlimited access to the comprehensive case law collection stored in Celex; this practice was actively “tolerated” by the Court.


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III. State of play + trends in the EU

State of playSince Oct. 2008, online access to legislation is free in all Member States.(N.B.: The website of the Italian ‘Gazetta Ufficiale’ grants free access only during a period of 60 days following the publication of the Official Gazette.)

In a third of the Member States, the online Gazette has official character.

4 Member States do not publish legislation any longer on paper; 2 others will follow in 2009.

TrendsOfficial publishing of legislation on the Internet

Paperless Legal Gazette

Co-existence of normal and “authentic” online versions of legislation


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Legislation published officially on the Internet

(N.B.:) Norway 2001

United Kingdom 2002 (1 Jan.)

Estonia (1 June)

Belgium*) 2003

Austria*) 2004 (1 Jan.)

France (1 June)

(N.B.:) Iceland 2005

Slovenia 2006 (1 Jan.)

Portugal**) (1 July)

Denmark*) 2008 (1 Jan.)

Hungary (1 July)

Spain*) as from 2009 (1 Jan.)

Netherlands*) as from 2009

___________________

*) no official paper edition**) limited paper edition

- Other official online versions Greece, Finland, Switzerland

- Projects under way:

EU, Germany, Italy, Sweden and others


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Paperless legal gazettes

Belgium 2003

Austria 2004

Portugal*) 2007

Denmark 2008

Spain as from 2009

Netherlands as from 2009 (?)___________________*) limited paper edition


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Online access tonational legislation

(October 2008)

Access to all online versions is free

Non-Binding online version

Binding online version, parallel to the paper edition No paper edition any longerdistributed

OJ of the EC

Documents

Online access to legislation in the EU